Rail-joint.



c. P. 0003mm; 0.1". LONG.

RAIL JOINT. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 17, 1908.

Patented Sept. 7, 1909.

I'll! CHARLES F.

GOCHRAN AND CHARLES F. LONG, OF VANDERGRIFT,' PENNSYLVANIA.

RAIL-JOINT.

Application filed August 1'5, 1908.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. '7, 1909.

Serial No. 448,880.

T all whom it may concern.

3e it known that we, CHARLES F. 00011- 1:.\x and CHARLES 1*. Lone,citizens of the United States, residing at Vandergrift, in the county ofW estmoreland and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Rail-Joints, of which the following is aspecification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to improvements in rail joints and moreparticularly to an improved fish-plate which will insure a smooth andeven passage of the car wheels over the meeting ends of the rails.

The object of the invention is to provide a joint of this character bymeans of which the rails will be held in perfect alinement and whichwill prevent the car wheels from dropping off of one rail onto the otherand thereby injuring the rails,. their fastening bolts and the crossties.

Xith the above and other objects in view, the invention consists of thenovel features of construction and the combination and arrangement ofparts hereinafter fully described and claimed, and illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of theimproved rail joint; Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the sameyFig. 3 is avertical transverse section; and Fig. at is a detail perspective of theimproved fish-plate looking toward the inner side of the same.

In the drawings 1 and 2 denote the meeting ends of two ordinary trackrails, 3 denotes an ordinary fish-plate upon the inside of the rails. ldenotes the improved fishplate upon the outside of the rails and 5denotes transverse fastening bolts passing through the fish-plates andthe web portions of the rails.

The improved fish-plate or joint-plate l has an upright body portion (5adapted to enter between the base flanges and the heads of the rails 1,2 and to fit against the web portions, as shown more clearly in Fig. 3.The inner face of the upright body portion 6 of the fish-plate l isformed with a longitudinally extending groove or channel 7 so that saidinner face has only two points of contact 8. 9 with the web portions ofthe rails. The outer face 10 of said body portion 6 is flat and verticaland at its bottom flange 11 formed upon the bottom of the body 6 andadapted to extend over the base flanges of the track rails. Said baseflange of the fish-plate 41- is formed in its outer edge with two ormore notches 12 to receive the usual spikes which fasten the rails tothe cross ties. Transverse openings 13 are formed at intervals in thebody portion 6 for the reception of the bolts The pert-ion of the body 6of the improved fishplate which is disposed outside of the heads of thetrack rails is extended upwardly to provide a vertically projectingrectangular flange let which lies in contact with the side faces of theheads of the rails and which has its flat upper edges disposed in thehorizontal plane of the top or tread surfaces of the rail heads. Byproviding the flange or extension 14 on the fish-plate and having itsupper surface flush with the tread surfaces of the rails the car wheelswill engage and ride over said edge 15 and in passing over the meetingextremities of the rails will not drop from one to the other in theevent that the rails are not in perfect longitudinal alinement. Thisconstruction will therefore effectively prevent injury to the rails, thebreaking of the fastening bolts and the cutting of the cross tiesbeneath the joint, which occurs so frequently where the ordinary railjoints are used.

The rails and fish-plates are effectively secured to the usual woodencross ties 16 by spikes 19 driven through the notches 12 in thefish-plates and into said ties. To further fasten the fislrplates to therails and strengthen the joint, a transverse locking plate 20 isarranged upon said parts at the meeting ends of the rails and midwaybetween two of the ties 16 which support the joint. This locking plateextends transversely beneath the base of the rails at their meeting endsand the lower edges of the two fish-plates and has its ends 21 bentupwardly and around the bottom edges or flanges of the fish-plates, asshown more clearly in Fig. 3 of the drawings.

Having thus described the invention what is claimed is:

The herein described rail joint comprising, in combination, two crossties, the meeting ends of two track rails arranged upon the ties withtheir abutting ends between the latter, fish-plates on the inner andouter portion merges into the downwardly and l sides of the meeting endsof the rails and exout-wardly inclined outer face of a basel tendingover the ties, each of said fish-plates having a channeled inner facedisposed opposite the web of the rails and portions to engage the headand base flanges of said rails, said fish-plates having their bottomedges flush with the bottom faces of the base flanges of the rails andnotched to receive spikes, the fish-plate upon the outer side of therail having an upwardly projecting flange arranged in contact with theouter side faces of the head portions of the rails and provided with aflat upper edge disposed in the horizontal plane of the tread surfacesof the rails, transverse bolts passed through the fishplates and theWebs of the rails, spikes arranged in the notches in the lower edges ofthe fish-plates and driven into the ties and a transverse locking platearranged in contact with the base flanges 01 the rails at their meetingends and the bottom edges of the fish-plates, the ends of said lockingplate being bent around the lower portions or flanges of thefish-plates.

in testnnony whereof We hereunto aflix our signatures in the presence oftwo W1t-

